One thing I quickly learned was that Rarelian–In fact–Had no weakness I could exploit. The lionfolk’s body was impossible for me to harm in the slightest. All that happened was that the already broken sword in my possession was reduced to nothingness in the process, and my fists proved similarly powerless.

  It felt like I was using a twig to hit a block of solid stone… The only good thing was that he was so large and with such thick limbs that I could actually move around and evade his tricks without having to constantly rely on time stop–He was technically faster than me, but as long as I moved in circles and avoided staying directly on front of him, I was mostly fine and would only have to freeze time every once in a while.

  This prevented me from burning out my ability, but I was nonetheless at a dead-end. Rarelian’s sheer defences were impenetrable. What little damage I had dealt at the very start had been beyond mild and had healed in the blink of an eye anyway.

  …A lion whose body can not be harmed by conventional means… What could possibly damage something like this? What is something that the toughness of one’s flesh wouldn’t be able to help against?

  I looked around the room, barely evading the swipe of the lionfolk’s claws. The sheer force of his swing left marks across the ground despite him not even actually touching it.

  As much as I could tell myself that I could continue to evade him, I knew that it wasn’t the case. I was well aware of typical battle tactics. He hadn’t yet gone all out. He was still in the probing phase of the fight… And right now, Rarelian assumed that I was also in this phase.

  In short, he hadn’t yet begun circulating his inner mana to enhance his strength or use any special technique. At the moment, he probably believed that I could also increase my strength through the usage of energy, but I couldn’t. My current strength was the best I had to offer.

  The only reason I could keep up was because Rarelian wanted me to reveal my hand first so that he could react and counter accordingly with brute force and abilities I would have no idea about. Once he realised that I was never going to augment myself with energy, the fight would be over for me.

  He would just do the correct thing and overwhelm me through pure physical superiority. Thus, I dearly needed to find a way to throw him for a loop before he realised I was an illiterate of energy manipulation.

  Thankfully, he wouldn’t realise too quickly… I was a human, and yet I was this strong, so he certainly believed that I had access to energy to nourish my physique. His first thought wouldn’t be that I had just been born with a superior physique. He would assume that I was in the same category as him.

  Nonetheless, I needed to think quickly…

  I paused the flow of time and stayed still, momentarily removing my focus from the fight itself. I was able to quickly figure out a way I could possibly deal damage to the seemingly indestructible lion. I couldn’t overpower him, and I could barely outmanoeuvre him enough to not get hit.

  Some pale monsters were probably heading my way at the moment, but they were frankly completely useless against my leonine adversary. I could only count on the time stop to pull my idea off. First, I needed Rarelian to do something specific… And to make him do it, I was going to have to put myself into harm’s way while freezing time as few times as possible.

  Say, Nara. I can force my time stop ability to ignore the cooldown, right?

  Theoretically, you can force it to activate, yes… But it will burn out much faster as a result, the resulting countdown and backlash will be much more severe as well–Considering that this is a borrowed ability with its in-built restrictions, I can assure you that the consequences of bending its rules by force will be quite dire…

  Please be careful, Mara

  I could tell that Nara would like to tell me to drop the idea, but she knew all too well that it was my only shot at defeating Rarelian–Not even actually kill him, but just put him out of commission long enough for me to deal with the others unimpeded.

  Our short exchange until now had been enough for me to realise that he was way beyond my current level. He was an advanced warrior born into a species of lionfolk who inherited both the might of their bestial side and the intelligence of their folk side. I had only seen him fighting whilst probing as well, I hadn’t even seen what he was fully capable of if he went for the kill–Energy involved or not.

  Nightmare trials were supposed to be to my advantage, but their strength scaled off of mine. Rarelian was simply beyond me at the moment, so even the unfairness of the trial was unable to give me enough boons to be his match.

  It felt quite bad to have to admit it so unanimously, but Rarelian was simply stronger than me… Damn, I really don’t like having to acknowledge it so clearly.

  …I might not be able to kill you, but you won’t forget me after today.

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  You’ll remember me.

  Time resumed its flow, and I placed myself directly in front of the lion. This is where I had to stay to have a shot at creating the necessary situation for my plan to function. Without being able to move in circles around him, his attacks immediately felt much worse. I could feel the sharpness of the air he displaced with each swing of his claws.

  He did more than just slash, however. He was moving forward quite aggressively. He trusted in his defences, and he was trying to bait me into showing something more–Which I did not have.

  I did my best, but a claw eventually lacerated me right across the chest. I bled heavily on the spot, and I could only thank my undead-like constitution. If it were genuinely just good old human me, I would have quickly grown hazy with blood loss–On the brighter side, the wave of pain that struck felt most revitalising, and it probably showed on my face that I reacted… Abnormally to the agony as the lion raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  My movements didn’t miraculously grow twice as swift or precise, but the pain definitely granted me some time of greater focus as adrenaline and a strong sense of satisfaction coursed through my veins… It was only after my face was disfigured by another strike that my opponent committed his greatest mistake.

  The wound on my face was less severe than the previous one, but it definitely looked more gruesome, and due to Rarelian being a feline, his claws were curved, meaning that the end of his swing resulted in me having the skin of my head being pulled, which itself resulted in my entire body being flung to the side unexpectedly before the bit of flesh that the claw had caught itself on snapped.

  To the lion, I was thrown off balance, prompting him to go for a follow-up without delay. He opened his maw wide… Judging by the distance, he was trying to bite down on me. He was going to roar.

  Just as I thought a beast like him would have access to the most common form of so-called ‘natural battle arts’. Which was a term usually used to describe the special effects imbued into the roar of plenty of beasts.

  Usually, it was a sort of blessing applied to oneself, but since he was using it to attack, it was rather obvious that this man was going to try and burst my eardrums–If not my entire skull.

  The flow of time came to a halt. My blood continued to flow, but I grinned nonetheless. It was time for me to shine.

  I had been waiting for him to open his mouth wide. The reason was very simple.

  As tough as he was, being able to shrug off being stabbed in the goddamn eye, he still needed to breathe. Therefore, I was going to use this occasion to stuff his throat with everything I could possibly find… Such as…

  Oh, would you look at that. Some of the pale monsters made it just in time! I am sure they wouldn’t mind offering themselves to be butchered and eaten by an oversized, bipedal lion… Heh, and what’s this over there? Seems like a lot of people forgot to bring the weapons they picked up with them when they escaped! Would be a shame if they were to somehow end up in a bizarre place, wouldn’t it?

  Mmh… Seems like pieces of the walls fell off during the fight. I am sure they are full of perfectly fine nutrients that a big boy like him would need, and why not add dust as well? Let’s not forget to really push everything as deep as possible with the use of my trusty boot to stomp it all in! Ahahah…

  Oh… I am starting to feel the strain quite severely now. I'd better wrap this up and find a place to collapse… Before this, though, let me shove some of my blood into your eyes… Oh, and why not your ears and nostrils while I am at it? Get the full sensory experience of my bourgeois blood, kitty!

  After I finished this, I made my way out of the structure through a window, getting into a habitation.

  I unfortunately did not get to see the reaction of my leonine adversary, but it was for the best that I went away. The moment the final six-second countdown came to an end, literally every single muscle in my body started to spasm uncontrollably as though no longer under my control. At the same time, I cried and puked blood simultaneously, while also probably leaking from the ears and nose as well–It was a bit hard to tell on account that I fell to the ground like a bag of rocks and lost consciousness.

  From my perspective, I was only knocked out for a second.

  Nara… Cutie Pie… How long has it been…?

  Only thirty minutes

  Huh… The backlash isn’t so bad after all–Oh crap. This room wasn’t covered in blood when I got in, was it?

  It was not. You’ve been spraying blood everywhere like a geyser out of a vampire’s dream. It was… Quite the horrific sight, to be honest. I have no idea how you aren’t considered defeated by the nightmare’s standards… I guess you really are like an undead

  I would have liked it if this were truly the case… I was indescribably sluggish right now, and I could feel that my physical state wasn’t the only thing that had suffered…

  Your time stop ability has degraded from six seconds to one second–But at least, it seems like your plan was successful, with how diligent you were in suffocating Rarelian. He has to put all of his focus on taking care of himself. Excessive exertion could lead to drastic consequences for him

  Perfect. I should still have plenty of time to deal with the rest, but I need to recover some strength, first… Mmh… Since I lost a bunch of blood, surely getting it back will make me better, right? I am not sure how things work since I am alive, but with a bunch of undead traits.

  I would assume that eating some of the pale monsters should help with the issue

  Oh, how handy. Hopefully, I don’t need to eat too many to get my strength back. Normally, Tilimia should still be on the roof of the city hall with the rest of the prey. She shouldn’t have been able to make an escape with all that dead weight to drag behind her.

  So… Everything should be fine, I’ll at least try to kill all of the weaklings. Since Rarelian is definitely getting out of here alive, I am not too mindful of the tigress surviving as well. My looks will be exposed anyway… From there, I can only hope that the intel doesn’t leave Heldinot.

  I don’t want Leton to learn of my nightmare capabilities. It might just give him inspiration to find a way to counter them…